


Minor Repairs

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Ghosts, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-10 17:38:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13506510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: The Falcon needs repairs. Fortunately for Rey, she's got help.





	Minor Repairs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Apricot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apricot/gifts).



The ship had sat unused and unwanted in Unkar Plutt's shipyard for two years, another piece of garbage baking to death on Jakku. Now Rey was co-pilot to the Wookiee who'd inherited the most famous smuggling vessel in the galaxy, and she had learned one very important thing about the Millennium Falcon: it was always falling apart.

Sparks flew in front of her. "Are you joking?" Rey asked the empty air. Chewbacca was busy on the hull with his own rewiring. No one else had time to help them, too busy repairing the few other ships Leia's good name had managed to buy them here on this Outer Rim trading stop.

"The relays are shot," Han told her. Rey didn't hear him. She never heard him. Han could spend his afterlife here shouting in the girl's ear, and she wouldn't even brush him off like some annoying bug. He'd tried.

"The relays are shot. Obviously."

Rey turned to look at the apparition sitting beside her. Han didn't pretend to understand why Ben was there though nobody else could see him. He wasn't dead, Han knew. Luke had tried to explain the details when he'd joined Han here in the spirit world, but Han never had understood all that weird Jedi nonsense, and now Luke was occupied whispering to Leia the things she needed to know if she was to survive longer than they had.

"I can see that," Rey said, turning back to her work.

"This piece of junk always needs repairs."

"Watch it," Han said. Ben did turn at the sound, a twitch on his face revealing his unease. Rey could never hear Han. Ben did sometimes, and had yet to figure out why, and it bothered him.

Rey's hands dug back into the panel. "Are you going to help or just sit there making rude comments?"

"I don't see why I can't do both."

Rey grumbled. Ben smirked. Han would have rolled his eyes if he still had eyes. That kid had always believed he was smarter than everybody around him, and he flew off the handle every time he found out he was wrong.

"I can't get us new relays," Rey said. "We don't have any money left." She closed her mouth.

"So you're at a trading post."

"We were," she lied. Ben wasn't fooled.

"We will find where you're hiding. You know that."

"I'm not going anywhere with bad relays," she said. "Come get me."

They glared at each other for a long moment. Han wasn't sure if they'd try to fight or try to kiss. They'd tried both in the days since they'd last seen each other in the flesh. It wasn't as though he could warn Rey away from someone she already knew was trouble, and telling Ben what to do had never worked once in his whole life.

Giving him options, though, that Han had been able to do now and then.

Into his son's ear, Han said, "The relays burnt out all the time when you were a kid. I showed you how to solder them back together. It's a repair job, not a replacement."

Ben gave another twitch. "You'll need new relays."

"I can't get new relays."

"Then you'll have to solder these back together. They burnt out all the time when I was a child. I know how to fix them."

She gave him a flat stare. "Then you can tell me how."

"And let you run away again?"

"Isn't it more interesting when I can?"

Han watched them, and had a feeling this would be a kissing day rather than a fighting day. He told Ben, "Remember those connectors are delicate."

Ben rubbed his ear. "I'll show you. The connectors are delicate. Can you see my hands?"

"Yes."

"Get the soldering iron."

They sat together, Ben making careful motions where Rey should go, Han leaning in to watch, worried that she'd make a wrong move and fry his poor ship. Her hands were steady. It was clear she'd done this sort of work before. Within a few minutes, the circuits were repaired, and Rey fitted the relays back into place. Above them, the control panel blinked on. Rey smiled in pride. Han didn't miss how Ben smiled too, but not at the control panel.

"Thanks," Rey said. "I think that will do."

"Good. You should come to me, not make me chase you down." Ben wanted to sound fierce but Han wasn't buying the bravado and Rey was barely holding in a laugh.

Han had been dead for about a week. He was still getting the hang of this whole afterlife thing. He ought to be some angry, avenging spirit, haunting the man who'd murdered him. Instead, he felt the same sorrowful love towards his son he did when he'd been alive. He didn't want vengeance. He wanted Ben to heal whatever wounds Snoke had cut across his soul, and become a decent person. Every time Ben's Force spirit, or whatever the hell Luke said, came visiting this girl, a small part of the Ben he used to know came back. Every time he helped her, showed her, listened to her, he took a step back from the darkness. The more time he spent with Rey, the more he became the man Han had always hoped he'd be.

Han looked around his ship. The Falcon had been the greatest love of his life, even more than the woman he'd married, though Leia understood, and had never been the jealous type. He adored this ship more than almost anything or anyone.

"Sorry, girl," Han said. With great deliberation, he focused all of his energy into the relay panel next to where Rey sat. More sparks flew.

Rey popped open the panel and swore at the mess. Ben said, "I told you. This hunk of junk keeps breaking."

Han said to him, "But you know how to fix it."

Ben said, "Fortunately, I know how to fix it. Get the tools."


End file.
